Biography

Born in Israel. Parents escaped from communist Russia.

[on Annette Bening as his leading actor in 'The Face of Love'] Annette was an obvious first choice. She embodies the emotional state of that character better than anyone. I wish I had more words at my disposal to describe her commitment to get at the truth and wanting to make it true and real. She is as committed to that as I am to the movie being good.

[on the challenges in making 'The Face of Love'] Nobody wanted to finance the movie - even with these actors at a modest budget. It's a woman in the lead role, it stars actors who are not in their twenties and on the cover of US Weekly, and it's drama. It had three strikes. The financiers who were bold enough had never invested in movies before but they saw an opportunity because, every time I go out there, people always say, why aren't they making more movies like this?